Let's face it, summer in Florida parallels winter up north.
This month, we stray from strictly musical items to look at a couple of recent publications. However these authors are equally
fine musicians, so reading their poems and stories does not pose a great stretch from our column’s stated purpose. Betsy Bolger-Paulet and Lee Paulet have been my friends more than ten years. I resumed playing music, after a hiatus,
at Lee’s request, on his hauntingly beautiful “Florida Waltz”. They recently moved to Citrus County and
we are richer for their presence. Shall we begin with Betsy’s gentle words?
Betsy‘s
poetry blends charm, candor and immediacy. Her book, “Butterfly Lessons” enfolds three earlier volumes. “Butterfly
Lessons”; “Flashback”; a single poem”Lies in Conversation” and “Cracker Love” trace
a poet’s growth emotionally and spiritually. Here’s a fine image excerpted from “Melancholy”.
….Not because of anything
Gone wrong
Not grief ---
Just there,
Like a raindrop on a leaf….
Betsy’s
images work to magnify their context and contain a whiff of Eastern wisdom as is this “Advice to Kanti”:
Attach yourself not
To the good action
Nor to the bad action
But, rather, to that place
Between all action.
As
Yang to Betsy’s Yin, Lee Paulet’s “Florida Cracker Boy: Tales of a Misspent Youth” teems with adventures,
fishing tips and crusty language. His yarn “On the Evils of skipping school” traces a teenage lark which mixes
some incredibly numb coincidence, a good friend Chuck, chuck’s rifle, and a ’56 Nash Rambler. Lee describes the
pair as “country boys, as stubborn as razorbacks and mean as shedding rattlesnakes.”
Despite the reader’s intrigue with a young man’s tomfoolery, Lee Paulet dedicates the book to the Boy Scouts
of America --”who do a fine job of instilling values in America’s youth.”
Living in Citrus,
Lee Paulet voices concerns about Florida’s fragile ecosystems and unwarranted growth. A genuine cracker, Lee lives the
finest lessons of scouting.
To get your own copy of the Paulets’ writing, call 352-795-4506.
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION - PUBLISHED 8/8/2008
